


Shattered Spark

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Major Character Injury, Nobody Dies but It’s A Close Call, RoboWhump, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-13 04:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18933082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: "It left little more than a scratch on her, but Copernica screamed in agony as if she'd been sliced in half."





	Shattered Spark

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea bouncing around in my head (and my memo app) for a week or so at least, but the other night I was just bursting with creative energy and decided I was ready to sit down and start writing this out. And then I couldn't stop. So here we are now.
> 
> Takes sometime either late or post-Quest, probably.

The...creature, whatever it was, lunged forward with its knife and swung in a wide arc. The blade glowed red with some supernatural energy and almost seemed to lengthen as it swung. The enhanced arc struck Copernica head-on.

Copernica collapsed to the ground, clutching her middle. The attack left little more than a scratch on her, but she screamed in agony as if she had been sliced in half.

Orik swiftly countered the strike. He’d been keeping an extra close eye on Copernica, having a suspicion about how the creature’s attacks would affect her. His cut was closely followed by an attack from Armilly, who’d been extra focused on that foe for some reason that might’ve only made sense to her. The creature hissed at them and scurried off to parts unknown. The party would have to deal with it later.

Armilly immediately dropped her sword and spun around. “Coco?!”

She was still curled up on the floor, although her screaming had faded into whimpering sobs. Galleo gingerly picked her up and uncurled her enough that he could see her belly. He wanted to assess the damage. He was confused by what he saw, though. No external damage, nothing he could fix... "What?"

“As I feared…” Orik took Copernica’s hand in his, held it over her middle, and began focusing his energy into healing. A faint green glow surrounded his hand. “Focus on my voice, Copernica. Stay with us.” He was fighting to keep his voice calm and steady.

“I-it hurts…” she strained through her tears.

“I know it does,” he said, his voice faltering. This was bad. Way worse than he first thought. Orik could feel her slipping; his own healing skills weren’t nearly enough to reverse an injury this severe. The best he could do was slow down the damage and possibly buy her a bit more time.

He couldn't save her. He was too far out of his depth.

Orik looked up, into his teammates' concerned faces. “We need to get her to a healer, **now** ,” he said. His tone was enough to convey the gravity of the situation, that Copernica’s life was at stake. 

Galleo adjusted his grip on Copernica and stood up with a stiff nod. There was a town not too far away, all they could do was hope that there was someone there that could help. Armilly ran ahead to make sure that the path was clear. Galleo followed behind with Copernica in his arms, Orik running next to him so he could keep healing and trying to keep her stable. Tarah and Thayne trailed behind.

Armilly skidded into town, screaming the whole time. It certainly got everyone’s attention, alright. People were staring. Not that it was important right now. The traveling merchant stood up from the front steps of her wagon. “What’s got you so riled up, dear?”

The knight was far too freaked out to answer coherently, but fortunately, Orik caught up to her. He pointed to the barely-conscious Copernica. “Soul injury, spark’s cracking, running out of time,” he gasped out.

The shopkeeper’s general demeanor immediately sobered as she understood. “Bring her in. I was a healer back in the day.”

She went inside her wagon and began clearing off the bench. Galleo and Orik followed right behind her, with Armilly and the twins huddling by the door. She gestured at the bench and instructed Galleo to lay Copernica down on it.

The merchant's hands began to glow a soft green, much brighter than Orik’s hand was at the moment. “Shhh, try to relax,” she murmured to the alchemist. Copernica used up her last bit of energy in that moment and went completely limp.

“Will-will she be okay?” Galleo dared to ask, wringing his hands.

“It’s difficult to tell at the moment, but we will know in due time. She’s a strong young lady.” The old ‘bot looked at Orik. “You can stop, now, I have ahold of her.”

“Surely you could use the extra help?” Orik asked, showing no intent to stop just yet.

The merchant shook her head. “You’ve done your part already, it’s time for me to do mine. Besides,” she said, “I can tell that you’re on the verge of collapsing. I’d prefer to deal with only one crisis at a time, please.”

The green aura faded from his hand and Orik let it drop at last. “Very well,” he sighed, his exhaustion finally showing. He leaned against one of the shelves behind him with a weary sigh.

“It’s best that you all wait outside. I understand that it’s difficult to leave your friend at a time like this, but I need to focus my full attention on her right now. The fewer distractions, the better.”

So the party of now five left the wagon (Orik leaning rather heavily on Galleo) and lingered near it. It was officially a waiting game now. Armilly began pacing back and forth while Galleo tried to distract himself with Benji. Orik stared off into the distance, lost in thought. At some point, he slipped his Kitsune mask over his face. He hadn't worn it for a while now.

No one had any words at first.

“I wish I could’ve fixed her,” Galleo said after a while. “Never felt so helpless before…”

“Do not hold yourself accountable for what happened,” Orik said, firmly but clearly regretful. “You had no way of knowing what had happened to her. If anyone is at fault for Copernica not surviving this, it would be me.” He turned back to looking out towards the fields. “I...should have been stronger.”

“At least you could help…” Thayne said.

“That is true,” Orik replied. “But I worry that I may have needlessly prolonged her suffering in the end.”

“You did your best,” Tarah said. A pause. She looked down at her feet. “What...exactly happened, back there?”

Orik perked up marginally, if only because he now had something to talk about aside from his own shortcomings. “You four are familiar with lifesparks, correct?” Galleo and Armilly nodded but Orik got blank stares from both of the twins. “A lifespark is basically the very essence of a steambot’s being, their soul. It’s what keeps the fire going in your furnaces. Every steambot has one--”

“What about me?”

“--Yes, even you, Armilly, despite your physiomechanical differences,” Orik said. “Anyway, there’s a very specific and restricted field of magic that can affect lifesparks directly. Attack them, remove them, split them apart...the list goes on. It’s such a forbidden field that it has no proper name. I had suspicions that that creature had such capabilities, which was why I had been keeping a close guard on Copernica earlier.”

“Why her in particular? I know she’s Squish and needs protecting, but still…”

“The strong magical component to Copernica’s lifespark, which makes her a powerful alchemist, also makes her particularly weak to spark-tampering.” Orik reached forward and began drawing a concaved diamond shape into the dirt with his finger. “The creature attempted to shatter Copernica’s lifespark, which would kill her. I’m unsure the exact factors that led to her survival and I’m not in the mood to question it, really. Despite this, her lifespark still began to crack.” He began to draw little lines webbing across the diamond. “These cracks would eventually cause her lifespark to split anyway if they weren’t fixed.”

Orik sat back, staring at his doodle. “It takes a special kind of magic to reverse the damage. I’ve dabbled in it in the past out of curiosity, but I’m nowhere near competent in the craft. I could do nothing to reverse the damage done to Copernica’s lifespark, only slow it down to an extent.”

Sensing his melancholy, Thayne scooted up to Orik and hugged him. “I think you did really good,” he said in his soft little voice. Tarah gave a small smile while Galleo nodded in agreement.

He never failed to be surprised at how good his companions were at pulling him out of despair. “Thank you, you three… How’re you holding up, Armilly?”

She was standing stiff as a board, but still trembling like a leaf. You could hear her armor rattle as she shook. It was nothing compared to the storm of emotions inside of her, though.

"...Armilly?"

With little to no warning, Armilly dropped to the ground and began screaming. She didn’t have tear ducts, so she couldn’t cry in the normal sense. She just had her voice to vent her feelings. That and her steam vents, but it didn’t feel like enough right now. It was all too much for her to handle; Copernica was her very first friend and one of her best ones. Screaming and steaming wasn’t relieving the pain in her heart, so she began beating the ground with her fist, too. Anything to make it stop…

She felt herself get lifted up, very gently, and brought into a tight hug. It was Galleo, obviously--the twins were too small to envelop her in a hug all the way and Orik didn’t have full use of one of his arms. Right away Armilly hid her face in his chest. She was vaguely aware that Galleo was crying, too, but not nearly as violently as she had been. It wasn’t long before the other three had joined in on hugging Armilly and Galleo, though.

“I can hardly fathom how difficult it must be for you two,” Orik said. “Given that you three have been close friends since you were children...” Tarah and Thayne scooted closer to one another and held hands as the thought of losing the other crossed both of their minds.

Armilly nodded as a few hiccuping sobs escaped her and she rubbed her eyes. (She didn’t have tears to wipe away, but dangit, her eyes still had a tendency to start burning after she’d been crying for a while.) Galleo’s sobs were quieting down as well. Benji was nuzzling at his cheek, which definitely helped.

They all remained in a cuddle pile for a while until the door to the wagon opened and the merchant poked her head out. She cleared her throat and immediately had five sets of eyes focused on her. “She pulled through. Copernica will be okay.” Instant relief all around.

“That being said,” she continued, “She’s in no condition to cast any spells, let alone fight for a few days _at least._ ”

Orik lowered his gaze. “I’m sorry, I--”

“You shush!” the old bird snapped. “If it hadn’t been for your work, I’m almost positive she wouldn’t have survived at all!”

That clearly hadn't been what Orik was expecting to hear at all. (Although admittedly, he didn't know what he was expecting to hear.) He sat there wide-eyed. "I... what...?" he muttered under his breath.

“Can we go see her?” Armilly asked.

The merchant looked back in her wagon. “Yes, it looks like she’s just now waking up. Welcome back, miss.” She looked back out at the rest of the party. “I’d advise you keep it low-key.”

That was all Armilly needed to hear; she virtually pushed the old woman out of the way to go visit Copernica. (Luckily Orik caught her.) Galleo followed behind her, more politely. “Coco??” Armilly hollered into the wagon.

“Mmm?” She lifted her head up and squinted. She didn’t have her glasses on, but she could still identify her friends when they were blurry. “Milly? Galleo?”

“Yep, it’s us,” Galleo said. Benji hopped down from his shoulder and settled on Copernica’s chest. Despite not having feathers that poofed out, you could still tell that he was being broody and protective of her.

The bird didn’t get to sit on her chest for very long, though, because a moment later Copernica was swept into a crushing hug courtesy of Armilly. “You’re okay!! I was so worried.”

“OOF! You’re gonna break my back…” Once she was released from her friend’s vice grip, she asked, “Are the other three here too?”

“Yes, we’re here, too,” Orik said as Tarah and Thayne began to climb on the bench. “We just figured we’d give Armilly a head start so we didn’t get stampeded. ( _"Hey!"_ ) How’re you feeling?”

“Kinda like I got kicked in the gut by a steam-horse, but nothing like earlier.” She leaned her head back and put a hand to her forehead. “I’m still pretty tired, too…”

“You almost died, I don’t think anyone’s gonna be expecting too much from you right now,” Tarah said. Her brother nodded.

“I think we all need a break after today…”

Yeah, that sounded good.


End file.
